On Thursday 5 July, Faith Tan, Enoch Chin and Poppy Hall participated in the National Brain Bee competition.

In preparation for this competition, students had a detailed book of information about the brain – how it develops, how it works, and how it functions to give us memory, sensation, personality etc. The competition involved students from many schools around the country, and consisted of quiz-style questions and group challenges.

In between the quiz sessions, students had short lectures from Auckland University lecturers and students specialising in different aspects of brain development, psychology, health and disease.  A particular highlight was looking around the Medical School Anatomy Lab – with floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with all manner of body parts, identified, labelled and described.  Some students also got to see an MRI scanner machine in action – taking 3D images of a person’s brain in real time!

Brain Bee is offered each year to Year 11 students – so keep an eye on the notices if you might be interested in this in future – or ask Faith, Enoch, Poppy or Ms. Goulding more about it.